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Sticky Sin and the Jumping Cholla

If your brother . . . entices you secretly, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods,” . . . you shall not yield to him or listen to him . . . But you shall kill him. Deuteronomy 13:6-9 The jumping cholla cactus is so named because of the ease with which it clings…
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I Know Best

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes . . . Deuteronomy 12:8 I remember sitting in my counselor’s office while in treatment, arguing with her about my discharge date. I’d been there 14 days, which seemed long enough. I was…
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Which Life Do You Want?

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God . . . Deuteronomy 11:26-28 No one wants to live this…
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Forgiving Doesn’t Mean Forgetting

And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. Deuteronomy 9:16 In my addiction, I caused my wife tremendous misery and pain. It took some time, but she eventually forgave…
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Lucky to Have Me

Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, “It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,” . . . Deuteronomy 9:4 Working in jail, with those whose lives are in a state of perpetual disaster, it’s tempting…
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Complacency

Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power . . . Deuteronomy 8:17-18 If you ask what happened to anyone who’s been addicted, had a significant amount of…
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It’s Hard to Watch Our Kids Struggle

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. Deuteronomy 8:5 I wrote yesterday about how God has used my trials to shape me. Though it was miserable at the time, I can now look back on my addiction and see how God used it to…
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Sober, but Still Terribly Flawed

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3 As I…
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The Greatest Threat to My Way of Life

And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction. Deuteronomy 7:26 Twenty-five years ago, I frequently watched a conservative talk show in which the host regularly ranted against anyone left of himself on…
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Fanatical

The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 7:25 Years ago, I met an individual whom I…
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